Since we launched Freckle, the number one request from our customers has been:
I want a timer!
Now, there’s a reason Freckle didn’t come with a timer to start with. We didn’t want to build a timer into Freckle for all sorts of reasons: we never manage to use them properly, and even when we remember to start them, we always forget them afterwards. This results in not just a lack of data, but the presence of bad data.
We believed that timers “solve” a problem that is created by bad software to begin with.
But because of your many emails, we’ve come to the conclusion that we were wrong.
Many of you use timers quite effectively, and you’re less forgetful than us. We hear you.
So we’re going to give you, our dearest customer, the best damn timer ever.
Our Plan
We designed a timer that’s just as awesome as our friction-free Quick Entry Box (you know, the thing where you enter your time currently). A timer where you never have to touch your mouse, if you don’t want to; a timer that trusts you to know what you’re doing, and supports you in good habits.
Here are some of the design features of our new timer:
- totally keyboard navigable: to start, stop, pause, and log
- select or switch projects by typing the start of the project name—just like in the QE box (but without a field)
- as few as 2 keystrokes to switch projects
- in-app use or bookmarklet on the go
- resume your timer, in case your browser crashes, you quit your browser accidentally, or you want to switch computers
- auto increment rounding on finish, according to your billing practices
- easy editable time on finish, for those times when you remember that mid-morning coffee break
And there are a few others we’re keeping under wraps.
The Sneak Preview
Keep in mind: it’s not done yet. We know many of you want it yesterday, and so do we, and we’re working our tails off. Unfortunately we can’t give you an exact date yet.
A screenshot:
A quickie video:
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Yesss. This is the only reason I’m still stuck in the overwhelmingness that is FreshBooks.
This is awesome news! The lack of a timer has been keeping me from using letsfreckle. Will it support server-side timers, like Harvest does? That’s a really nice feature, and doesn’t impair the usability at all. Also, it would enable easier synchronization between e.g. an iPhone app cough!
Chap: woohoo!
Daniel: yes, indeed – the timer will sync with the backend (as noted above, in case of crashing, quitting the browser or switching computers). :)
We want an iPhone app too!
First things first, though :)
The design seems very well thought through except for the spinner. It would be distracting to have an animated circle running all the time.
But the rest is perfect: keyboard control, simple interface, important information large and at the top!
@Geoffrey: I disagree about the spinner. I think the spinner says “you are currently recording time and should be working right now”. The fact that you do notice it is a good thing in my opinion – it’s presence should be known. And at first I thought, “Well, maybe instead of a spinner it could be a standard incrementing timer”. But I’m not so sure about that now. Timers make me rush to “beat the clock”. And rushing, in this line of work, goes against two things: good practices and making more money :-)
Freckle team: amazing job. Giving that much UI care to something this small says a lot about you guys (and girls).
Hey Geoff, Ryan, time will tell about the spinner. (This one, or another one.)
What we don’t want to do is show too many numbers counting up. For all the reasons that Ryan said, and just the crassness of it all :)
Thanks for the kind words!
you must add some screenshots to your site! (and if they’re there, make them more obvious). If I don’t see how your tool “looks” like, I don’t even bother to try it (I have 6 other tabs open with similar tools waiting for me to be checked out)
how i can download this tools ?
The Timer tool is invaluable to our team & we wouldn’t have started using Freckle without it. On the whole it’s amazingly executed (keyboard shortcuts rock!) The only bug we’ve found, though, happens to be quite glaring. At the moment when I Log a task, starting the timer again for the same project resumes the timer with the hours I just logged (doesn’t start from zero). This can easily result in double entry of time. Once this bug is fixed I’ll be 100% satisfied w/ your timer.
@cssbit while I don’t think an official downloadable timer is coming anytime soon, you can use tools like Prism: http://labs.mozilla.com/prism/ or Fluid: http://fluidapp.com to get Freckle acting more like it’s own application.
Good ! But it will be better if you add a “Create new project” button directly in the timer window.
Two things:
a) when will it be available? This is the only thing keeping us from switching to freckle.
b) It looks like there is no way to actually see the current timer value. This is a bad. Sometimes you have an external limit on some task, something like “ok, you can do X but don’t spend more then 45 min. on it”. Our current time tracker also lacks this display and so I always find myself stopping the timer just to look at how much time it counted so far.
Any chance you could make this a widget instead?
I find it much easier to manage my applications, I’m not very keen on mini browser windows?
Either way looks like it will be handy indeed!
How do we record start time and stop time? Nice to record accumulated hours and minimum increments, but our time sheets need to record when precisely those hours were consumed. Any solution for that?
Just wanted to let you know that the timer is the killer feature for me with freckle! Excited for an iPhone app :-)